11. Ruo Chen Chu Yu 若琛出浴 - Heats up cups. 'Ruo Chen' was famous Jingdezhen porcelain potter, 'specially good at making small cups

12. Lu Ye Hui Hu 玉液回壶 - Pours tea water into another pot

13. Guan Gong Xun Cheng 关公巡城 - Fills cups in a row, like Guanyu from Romance of the Three Kingdoms petrols castles.

14. Han Xin Dian Bing 韩信点兵 - Finishes pouring to the last drip, like general Han Xin (devoted follower of Liu Bang from Han dynasty) roll-calls his soldiers. Because if brewing with water left-over, diminishes essence of Cha Yun Qi.

15. San Long Hu Ding 三龙护鼎 - Holds a cup with a thumb and index finger, middle finger supporting the bottom of cup. Like three dragons guard a kettle

Re: Wuyi Chayi 27 Du (Wuyi Gongfu ceremony)

There are lots of these ceremonies where they say four-syllable set phrases. Most of them seem to be pretty girls doing performances to help tea companies sell tea. I know the eight step one for TGY, and have seen the 13 step one. My favourite is the one described here:http://tieba.baidu.com/f?kz=443353085

It claims 36 steps, but only lists 23.

Maybe we should move this topic to the Cha Dao section?chrl42 (or anyone else) do you know of anyone who uses these 'ceremonies' for private entertainment(of guests, friends), and not as a marketing tactic?

Re: Wuyi Chayi 27 Du (Wuyi Gongfu ceremony)

I've seen this ceremony translated before, but always seemed a little too poetic for me.

What about 潮州工夫茶 (Chaozhou gong fu cha)? There are a lot of different takes on it, and there isn't one authoritative one as far as I know.

I had a vendor show me his take on it recently. I guess it does benefit the vendor to show people how to make tea this way, because it burns through a lot of leaf very quickly. However, I do think making tea this way has improved my tea making, and my appreciation of making tea.

Here's my simplified explanation of the stuff I remember him telling me: - Ideally, use a small kettle to bring the water to a boil quickly. - As in Imen's post below, use a small flat tray for the cups, a tea boat or shallow dish for the pot (preferably with a flat cloth coaster underneath), and a waste water bowl - The amounts of leaf are for a rolled leaf tea like tieguanyin. I think roasted tieguanyin is probably the usual choice, though I know chaozhou people like to prepare both yan cha and (of course) dan cong in a similar way. Not sure about amounts of leaf for those - presumably some crushed leaf and then 1:1.

* Warm cups, then teapot* Place cups (ideally on a small tray) next to each other, and wash them. You can wash 2 at a time in a third cup, by putting the mouths of the cups together.* Crush 1/4 to 1/3 of dry leaf between the top and bottom part of the fingers on the dominant hand (i.e., right hand if you're right handed). This takes more strength than you'd think.* Put crushed leaves into the teapot* Tilt the pot towards the handle end and tap it, to force the crushed leaves a little towards the back.* Put in the rest of the leaves on top, being pretty careful not to disturb things.* Boil more water* Fill the cups* Pour water slowly, coming from outside the rim to make a circle around the inside slowly, ending up in the middle.* Pour the cups over the teapot, 2 at a time if there are 4 cups (or 1 at a time if there are 2); seems like 4 is most traditional.* Pour each teacup 1/4 full and then fill all the cups up in a circle. At the end, you can kind of forcefully push the pot down to get drips into the cups to even out the color and height.* Pour cups over teapot for the rinse.* Repeat filling cups, pouring water into teapot, pouring water from cups onto top of teapot, and pouring out the tea.* Either move the cups out for the guests, or tell the guests to drink* Repeat for 4 total infusions. If there are more than 4 guests, the cups can be re-washed in between infusions and then alternate who drinks. If you really want to make a 5th infusion, you can pour the water into the cups *after* filling the pot, then showering it (as a timing technique). The guy I spoke to said it's Ok to use the leaves afterwards, but transplant them to a bigger teapot.